


Don't Think Twice, It's All Alright

by thoughtsinside



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Multi, Sweetness between Julie and her phantom boys, The best found family you'll ever see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29622546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtsinside/pseuds/thoughtsinside
Summary: Julie has a question she needs answered. It's something she's tried to let be but at the end of the day it's a piece of Alex, Luke and Reggie she wants to know. How did it feel to die? The boys offer an answer and it's emotional.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer/Julie Molina/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	Don't Think Twice, It's All Alright

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry in advance if this hurts you as much as it hurt me, but at least the ending is beautiful!
> 
> P.S. A big shoutout to my sweet Britsy! Thank you for being the one person I've been able to fangirl out with over this fantastic show and everything else we've loved in these almost ten years of friendship. No one gets me more than you.

“What was it like?” Julie asks, lips pursed, curious chocolate hues full of a fear she can’t name. It's something she's wondered since the boys appeared; what they felt when they died.

“Don’t ask that, Julie,” Luke replies while avoiding her gaze altogether.

Alex and Reggie look to each other, knowing Julie wasn’t one to let things go easily. She needed reasons if they weren't willing to tell her, and they couldn’t think of any. Other than the fact that recounting the moments would surely cause that pain to resurface. Alex shakes his head gently, blond locks falling over his eyes. Reggie looks down. Each of them was asking without _actually_ asking to not have to say it. She was still so young and alive. This kind of knowledge wasn’t meant for the living.

“Please? For me?”

There’s a lump in Luke’s throat, a real-life sensation he wonders if he can notice now because he can feel again. Memories of death linger around all three ghosts, but they’ve never mentioned it to Julie; because it’s weird and sad, and not **at all** rock and roll.

“It was scary,” he starts, realizing that in telling her the truth she won’t be able to not think of her mom. " _For us._ ”

If there was one thing they’d all discussed, it was how much they hated being poisoned by bad hot dogs. That was no way to go out, a straight up idiotic death that really would haunt them forever.

“Because it hurt,” Reggie cuts in with a weak smile. “The pain of digesting it was the worst part.”

Alex laughs half-heartedly, “It was all agonizing, actually. I can still hear Luke crying sometimes.”

“Dude, **shut up.** ”

Julie can tell that despite some of the lackadaisical expressions, everything they said was true. It hurt badly, they were scared and alone. They were three kids who still had too much life left and they didn’t want it to end.

“Did it happen fast? Like, how did you _know_ something wasn’t right?”

Again the boys sigh, each of them for different reasons. However, again it’s Luke who speaks first.

“No, it didn’t. We sat there for a while before we realized. Reggie was the one that was able to get someone to call 911.”

But by that point it was already too late. There would be no coming back from it. Alex had been clutching his stomach and fell to the ground while Luke felt searing rips through his abdomen. He cried out for his mom. Both scenes caused Reggie to faint, the sirens in the distance still too far out to save any of them.

Julie sits back on the couch as she notices the emotions beginning to pool in her eyes. They were right, she shouldn’t have asked. 

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly, fingers wiping the tears that stain her cheeks.

Alex gestures to Luke by nudging his head towards the girl as he moves closer to her across the couch. He knew better than to leave her feeling that sad and vulnerable. Reggie and Luke couldn’t have kept him from wrapping his arm around Julie’s shoulders. He could feel how much she needed them.

“You don’t have to be,” Luke says as he kneels in front of her. “It’s okay.”

“Yeah but you guys died. It’s **more** than just some _sensitive subject._ It hurts to talk about and I should have respected that.”

A hand reaches for hers, resting over top of her tiny, curled fists. When she feels Luke's touch, Julie’s bottom lip quivers. She knows he wants to help her, he always does. Even when she’s the one who should be comforting all of them. Her instincts want to break free from all three of them, but instead she stays still, allowing her body to crumble inward.

“We talk about it, Jules. More than you know.”

Reggie’s voice breaks the tension again, wanting to offer a release into honesty.

“We didn’t want you to know because once you do it’s hard to not think about.”

Alex nods in agreement, watching as Luke waits for Julie to see him. He tightens his grip which causes her to look up.

“It makes me sad to know you were alone.”

Their families were hardly in any of their lives. The one thing Julie was able to take solace in was that her mom died peacefully, with her whole family by her side; and though her life was cut tragically short too, it was rich and full of love. Alex, Luke and Reggie hadn’t had that, but they deserved it more than anyone she knew.

“But we weren’t alone, we had each other. Just like we do now.”

Luke’s words always echoed that sentiment. It was the three of them through thick and thin, and now eternity. _A true band of brothers._

“And it brought us to you, didn’t it? Nobody got left behind.”

“Is that enough?” She questions them.

Luke: The ghost her heart is absolutely full of. The one with the best smile and positive outlook she longs to encounter every day.

Alex: Her rescuer and confidant, readily available for anything she needs whether it’s difficult or easy. No matter what.

Reggie: A beacon on stage and off, the one who makes sure she laughs at least fifty times a day.

“It’s all we need, boss. I dunno about Alex and Reggie, but, this _hasn’t_ been the worst afterlife **I’ve** ever heard of.”

Slowly Alex releases Julie so she can see the tides within all of them changing.

Death didn’t have to be the end of a story. **It could be the beginning of a new one.**

“And who knows? We might be able to ride it all the way to the top. If it meant getting _this,_ ” he smirks, finger raising her chin to meet his point of view. “I’d eat that hot dog every time.”

'There was no way that was true,' Julie thinks to herself. But the bottom line was that she loved all of them too much to disagree.

Their fates were sealed. As a band, as friends — they were soulmates, meant to travel through time together. There was no going back to change things. All they could do was keep moving, keep reaching for what they wanted.

“I’d die a million times to meet you, Julie Molina,” Luke reiterates.

" ** _Well,_** I mean, I would have been fine meeting you _literally any other way,_ but I’ll take what I can get.”

Alex rests his forehead on Julie’s, both of them turning to look at Reggie as he too begins to cry.

“Don’t judge me for my marshmellowy, soft heart. I make no apologies for being full of love.”

Carefully Luke rises from the ground to offer the other ghost some support.

“That’s the beauty of friendship, Reg. You can be yourself and we’ll always love ya.”

And it was funny, if they thought about it long enough, because Sunset Curve’s first song really told their story perfectly. There was no _now_ or _never,_ there was only now.

The ultimate never: death, wasn’t an obstacle. Clocks moved forward but they wouldn’t be getting any older.

Julie would, which was why each moment needed to count.

But this was their second chance and it had to matter. Each of them understood the value of time which was why they would treasure every minute of it. If nothing else was certain, their devotion to each other and to music would be. It was the baseline for everything.

 _Julie and The Phantoms_ , **always and forever.**


End file.
